"Rick Perry Says It’s ‘Misinformation’ To Suggest He Wants To Abolish Social Security"

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Today at a campaign stop in Newport Beach, California, one attendee asked Perry for his reaction to Romney’s charge that he wants to “abolish Social Security because it’s a Ponzi scheme.” Perry responded, “I’d say that’s misinformation“:

ATTENDEE: Romney’s advisers said you want to abolish Social Security because it’s a Ponzi scheme. What do you say to that?

PERRY: I’d say that’s misinformation. We just want to fix it.

ATTENDEE: Are they distorting your record?

PERRY: (No response, shakes his head.)

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Certainly, Perry and his campaign camp are having trouble sticking to previously stated — or published — positions. But Perry only need re-read his own book “Fed Up” to recall that he views Social Security as “by far the best example” of a program “violently tossing aside any respect for our founding principles.” On MSNBC’s Morning Joe last year, Perry explicitly said of Social Security, “Why is the federal government even in the pension program or the health care delivery program? Let the states do that.” Unless his own words are a source of misinformation, it is hard to see how he isn’t advocating for the end, rather than the reform, of Social Security.

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